Longwood receives top historic trust category

A celebration event was held on Sunday to recognise the Longwood homestead and other historic buildings on site in Featherston that have achieved category one registration with New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a place of special and outstanding heritage significance.
Guests included South Wairarapa Mayor Adrienne Staples, Mayor of Masterton and Wairarapa branch chairman of New Zealand Historic Places Trust Garry Daniell and staff and branch members of the trust.
Longwood is among New Zealand's largest, architecturally accomplished and historically most significant country estates.
Designed by John Swan, Longwood homestead was built in 1906 for the Pharazyns, a prominent Wairarapa run-holding family.
It replaced a former house on the site for Longwood's first owner, Henry Bunny (1823-1891).
Some of the outbuildings of Longwood date from this early period.
Pharazyn sold Longwood to Dan Riddiford in 1911.
The Riddiford family kept the property until 1989.
Present owners, Marguerite Tait-Jamieson and Garrick Emms bought it in 1992, turning it into a country lodge.
Speakers at the celebration highlighted the wonderful restoration work the present owners had brought to the property.
Ann Neill, general manager for the central region of NZHPT spoke of the heritage sustainability objectives of the Trust and working with owners to preserve places of significance.
Mayors Adrienne Staples and Garry Daniell echoed these thoughts and praised the commitment of the owners to make Longwood a very special place in Wairarapa.
Wairarapa MP John Hayes said the owners had rescued the property from a state of significant disrepair and he admired their efforts to bring back elegance and beauty to a great homestead.
He expressed concern about the destruction of the environment around the country and congratulated families in Wairarapa who wanted to emulate their forebears, with the support of the Historic Places Trust, to preserve the environment as reflected in heritage properties.
He said there is a mood to turn our back on the further destruction of properties, and to be justly proud of our nation's values as reflected in places like Longwood, for tomorrow's generation.